The present invention relates to a blended-fiber, knit garment and a process for designing and dyeing polyester-cotton, knit garments with soil-release characteristics, colorfastness, durability, shrinkfastness and anti-pilling properties in order to meet the diverse demands of the commercial laundering and industrial rental markets. The invention conveys these benefits without the application of resins that are known to have limited effectiveness and cause loss of cellulosic tensile strength. Additionally, the invention economically maximizes the cost of transporting finished garments, eliminates the production of unwanted dyed scrap fabric and significantly reduces wastewater that is otherwise commonly associated with garment dyeing processes.
Knit garments are naturally more comfortable than woven garments, and knits also provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance, making knits highly desired for industrial uniform rental applications. However, the processes by which knit garments are presently manufactured causes them inherently to lack stability, durability and fastness, making knits unsuitable for rental applications and commercial laundering attendant thereto. Knit garments are cut and sewn from fabric that is manufactured by one of two processes: either yarn dyeing or fabric dyeing. Yarn dyeing involves first spinning fibers into yarn, winding the yarn into skeins and then placing the wound skeins onto dyeing cones. The cones are immersed into liquor and dyed. The dyed yarn is then knitted into fabric, usually in tubular form. In fabric dyeing, the yam is first spun and knit into fabric in a tubular shape and stored on a take-up roll. The tubular-knit fabric is then pulled through a water jet nozzle while being impregnated with dye.
Whether yam-dyed or fabric-dyed, the resulting fabric is then passed through a finishing procedure that attempts to minimize staining from different types of soil, reduce wrinkling during washing and drying, improve shrinkage resistance, provide softness for better hand and reduced needle cutting during the garment sewing process. This finishing process is performed by supporting the fabric on a tenter frame and treating the fabric with resin. Unfortunately, application of resin imparts only partial shrinkage control, and the effectiveness of the resin to impart soil release characteristics decreases when the fabric is exposed to chemicals used in commercial laundering. Additionally, the application of resin to cotton-polyester blended fabric causes a significant decrease in the tensile strength of the cellulosic component of the textile, thereby decreasing the durability and serviceable life of knit garments. As a result, there is a need for knits that can acquire good soil release characteristics, shrinkage resistance and softness without the addition of resin.
In addition to the shortcomings imposed by resin treatment, yarn and fabric dyeing processes employed in the textile industry waste dye, chemicals and water. In both yam dyeing and fabric dyeing, the dyeing processes must be performed before the garment is cut and sewn. As a result, a significant amount of dyed fabric is wasted when the unneeded fabric scraps are discarded after the cutting portion of the respective processes. In addition to the lost dye contained in the unneeded scraps, the discarded, dyed fabric represents increased production of wastewater as well as the loss of otherwise unneeded chemicals in the dyeing process and the loss of dyeing capacity that was unnecessarily consumed in dyeing the wasted scraps.
In addition to losses associated with dyeing unnecessary portions of textiles, the economics associated with transportation in the garment industry causes inefficiencies to be introduced in the manufacture of knit garments. Cutting and sewing is the most labor intensive portion of the garment manufacturing process. However, certain dyeing processes, such as custom dyeing, involves only modest amounts of labor and is highly technical. As a result, manufacturers of knit garments transport their undyed spun yam or undyed fabric from the location of manufacture, which typically has widely available labor, to a location for dyeing that has adequate technical and equipment resources. After dyeing, the goods are shipped back to regions of available labor for knitting and/or cutting and sewing before final shipment to a finished garment distribution network. This is a lengthy process. Consequently, large stores of dyed garments must be maintained in order to readily supply any demands. The costs attendant to maintaining such an inventory can be high. Additionally, the transaction costs associated with the transportation of goods can exceed the value of the materials in the finished garments, making custom dyeing impractical. Consequently, there is a need in the industry for both a garment and a process by which such a garment can be manufactured that will maximize the efficient use of available resources, including inventory management and transportation resources.
In addition to streamlining the utilization of resources, there is a need to improve the chemical processes by which knits are dyed so as to better serve the needs of the commercial laundering and industrial rental markets. Yarn dyed and fabric dyed knit garments shrink by five percent (5%) or more in width and greater than ten percent (10%) in length when exposed to commercial laundering. Length-to-width shrinkage can be so disproportionate that threads break and seams pucker. In addition, yarn dyeing is inefficient. In yarn dyeing, the outer surface of fibers may appear to be dyed; however, the inner portion of each fiber remains undyed. This is known as the "ring-dye effect." When combined with the poor colorfastness of dyes typically utilized in yarn dyeing, garments made of yarn-dyed fibers wear prematurely with industrial use and commercial laundering. While the chemistry of fabric dyeing can produce textiles with better washfastness than can yam dyeing, fabric dyeing is very difficult to execute properly. Consequently, in addition to the aforesaid, there is a need in the industry for a garment and a process of designing and dyeing a knit textile to render it capable of maintaining dimensional stability, durability, colorfastness, and pill resistance when exposed to the harsh environments imposed by commercial laundering and industrial rental.